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Northern Kentucky

Join with other liberty minded individuals from across Northern Kentucky for a combined meeting on the 4th Thursday of every month. The combined meetings start at 7pm but arrive at 6:30pm to socialize and meet fellow patriots. The combined monthly meetings are held at the Holiday Inn Express located at 7905 Freedom Way, Florence, KY 41042. The Holiday Inn Express is easily accessed off US-42 and I-75 at exit number 180.

At the Thursday, February 26 combined meeting we are featuring candidates for Governor of Kentucky Hal Heiner and Wil T. Scott. Each candidate will be given 30 minutes to talk and answer questions.

Kenton County Clerk Gabrielle Summe was responsible for failing to certify the petition which would have put the tax that funds the Northern Kentucky Area Planning Commission (NKAPC) on the ballot for a vote. If you signed this petition, you were denied this opportunity. The Libertarians are running candidate and former veteran Chris Robinson for Kenton County Clerk this fall.

Chris Robinson was born in Kenton County at St. Elizabeth North in 1972. He served in the Navy for 11 years, and is an Iraq War and Bosnia War veteran.

He has completed advanced public affairs training as part of his military career, and has a bachelor's degree in communications.

Chris works in Covington at the IRS, and is active in his neighborhood association.

He is committed to make Kenton County a better place to live, work, and raise a family.

His pledge to voters:

Customer Service - As your County Clerk I will answer to you, the public - not the bureaucracy.Efficiency - I will audit current spending to see that not one dollar is wasted.Integrity - I will ensure the office will be run without bias, and will put citizens of Kenton County first.

Most importantly he will certify the petition to put the tax that funds the NKAPC on the ballot!

The board of directors for Sanitation District No. 1 (SD1) is proposing a 5% rate hike for sanitary sewer and stomwater service for the upcoming fiscal year. If approved Northern Kentucky residents would see rate hikes in their sanitary sewer and stormwater bills beginning August 2014. According to SD1, rate payers would see an average monthly increase of $1.98 on their SD1 bills for sanitary sewer service and a hike of 24 cents per bill for their stormwater service. The SD1 Board of Directors announced the rate-hike proposal, along with a public comment period, in a recent meeting (Higher sewer bills proposed for NKY, 2104).

The increase to the stormwater fee is more than the usual annual cost-of-living increase, about 2 percent. According to SD1 executive director David Rager the proposed rate hike is to pay for maintenance of stormwater infrastructure that cities have transferred to SD1.

“Rate changes are needed in order to fix and continuously maintain aging sewer pipes in the Northern Kentucky region,” Rager said.

The proposed SD1 budgets for the fiscal year – July 1 to June 30, 2015 – are $12.7 million for the stormwater utility (up from about $12.4 million); and $84 million for wastewater service (up from the current budget of $82 million), Rager said (Higher sewer bills proposed for NKY, 2104).

One of the biggest disappointments of the Republican primary was Matt Bevin’s loss to fifth term senator Mitch McConnell. Statewide, with almost all precincts reporting, McConnell had 60 percent of the vote to Bevin's 36 percent, with three other Republicans taking the rest. He even beat Bevin 48.7 percent to 47.8 percent in Boone County, a tea party stronghold that looked to be the most likely for Bevin to win (McConnell bests tea party, but now needs them, 2014). Not only did Bevin not win Boone County, he only won two counties statewide, Scott and Pendleton, and those he only won by a few votes. In Scott County, Bevin won 1,752 votes to 1,707 votes; in on Pendleton he won 359 to 348 (Top five surprises in Tuesday’s Senate primary, 2014).

Poor Voter Turnout may have been a Factor

Part of the reason Bevin did so poorly in Northern Kentucky may have been its historically low voter turnout, a fact often lamented by local politicians who cite it as a reason why the region gets ignored by leaders statewide. The NKY Tea Party strenuously attempted to energize their base and exhort Republicans to get out and vote to no avail (KY Republicans Must Participate in the Upcoming Primary, 2014). Boone County, where Bevin set up shop and visited almost every week of the campaign, had the second lowest turnout of Kentucky's 120 counties at 16.94 percent, according to the Secretary of State. Voters in Kenton and Campbell counties didn't come out in much greater numbers, with turnouts of 17.85 percent and 20.35 percent respectively (Top five surprises in Tuesday’s Senate primary, 2014).

After the 2014 Republican primary the Enquirer couldn’t resist gloating over the NKY Tea Party. According to the Enquirer Tea Party candidates fizzled out at the polls in the Republican primaries while incumbents and pro-regionalism newcomers carried the day. It pained them to admit that some Tea Party candidates did win their elections. For example, Boone Republicans did choose Cathy Flaig, former head of the NKY Tea Party, in the five-way primary for County Commissioner District 1. And Kenton Republicans picked tea party-backed Fort Wright Mayor Joe Nienaber, an outspoken critic of tolls for the Brent Spence Bridge replacement, for County Commissioner District 3. Campbell Republicans picked Charlie Coleman, who sued the county library system over its tax rate, for County Commissioner District 2. Ultimately the Enquired cried sour grapes and disparaged their victories as “isolated events (Tea party candidates fizzle out across NKY, 2014).”

Question the Label

I found it interesting the choices for the label “tea party” candidate that the Enquirer selected for the Republican primary. After reviewing the election sites for the alleged tea party candidates, I found few if any that ran on that specific credential with the exception of Cathy Flaig, who won her primary election in a landslide. Charlie Coleman made mention of his participation in the Campbell County Tea Party on his brochure, but it was a few words in a long list of his civic involvement.

After reading the Enquirer article “Is tea party poised to take over Boone County?,” I couldn’t help wondering why they were so concerned about the Boone County Tea Party? After reading the title you would have thought the Tea Party was going to storm the Boone Fiscal Courthouse with armed militias. The article’s highlights describe the tea party candidates as “far-right” and that it’s been a “long-held dream” for them to take control of the county government (Is tea party poised to take over Boone County?, 2014). These ridiculous labels made me look at the front of the newspaper to ensure that I wasn’t reading one of those magazines on the rack at the grocery store checkout. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised since the Enquirer is notoriously biased against the NKY Tea Party (The Enquirer is Biased Against the NKY Tea Party, 2013). It’s sad that the Enquirer doesn’t realize how ridiculous and absurd their articles actually sound.

The Plot to Seize Power?

According to the Enquirer, in the judge-executive race, tea-party-aligned Matt Dedden hasn't run as vigorous a race against incumbent Gary Moore as had been expected. But that seat isn't the tea party's only path to power: if their candidates win two county commissioner seats, they can block many pieces of legislation. And if they win all three, they can control the county's agenda.

So if the tea party candidates win, my question is what are they going to do then? Leave the residents of Boone County alone and under taxed? Manage the affairs of Boone County in fiscally responsible manner and under regulate their businesses? Apparently the Enquirer finds the prospect frightening.